U.N. delays fact-finding mission to West Bank

LOS ANGELES TIMES

Originally published Saturday, April 27, 2002

UNITED NATIONS -- Israel and the United Nations averted a confrontation Friday as Secretary-General Kofi Annan agreed to delay a fact-finding mission to the West Bank until after the Israeli Cabinet meets Sunday to discuss the inquiry.

Senior U.N. officials had said early Friday that the mission would depart as planned to the region today, despite an Israeli demand that the world body postpone inquiry ordered by the Security Council into Israel's recent three-week occupation of the Jenin refugee camp.

But after two days of what they termed "cordial and constructive" talks with Israeli representatives here, U.N. officials agreed to put the mission on hold another day, until after the Jewish Sabbath, when the Cabinet will reconvene.

Access to the camp requires Israeli cooperation, U.N. officials acknowledge.

After the talks, Annan's top aides told Security Council members that it appeared the dispute was largely resolved -- sentiments also privately expressed by some Israeli officials here.

The U.N. fact-finding team's personnel and investigation priorities "cannot be reconciled with the mandate in the Security Council resolution," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office declared in a statement in Jerusalem earlier Friday. "For the purpose of these clarifications, Israel requests that the arrival of the commission be delayed."

Israel wanted military experts added to the mission's leadership troika.

The three people named Monday by Annan include a former Finnish president and the past chiefs of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, whom the Israelis fear will concentrate on investigating human rights abuses to the exclusion of considering Israeli security concerns.

But U.N. officials said that while Annan had agreed to name additional military advisers to the fact-finding team, he would not add or remove mission leaders.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces reentered the West Bank city of Kalkilya and nearby villages Friday, defying fresh calls by President Bush for Israel to complete its withdrawal from Palestinian areas.

Kalkilya Hospital director Arwa Shanti said tanks and troops entered the city about 3 a.m. Friday, searching house-to-house and engaging in firefights with Palestinian gunmen before withdrawing late in the day.

One man, identified by Israel as the local leader of a radical Palestinian faction, was killed in the raid, the most extensive incursion into Palestinian territory since the army ended its large-scale offensive early this week. Sixteen others were arrested, an army spokeswoman said.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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